After their success with Warpath the Autobots manufactured a large number of Autobots to the same design. While they could have chosen a larger human battle tank for their design template they preferred the Sheridan due to its small size but large caliber gun. These tank Autobots can actually drive around human roads quite easily without tearing them up and inadvertently crushing buildings. The gun with its wide maw can fire a huge range of shells. The real Sheridan tank has only minimal armor of aluminum which tends to melt when hit, but these Autobots have massively strong hulls. Since they don't need interior space for a human crew they are nearly solid blocks of armor plate.

Battler is a dedicated front line warrior, always eager to see combat. He doesn't delight in battle, rather he really wants to defeat the Decepticons and win the war. Being a heavy-duty combatant he regards himself and his brothers as the fighting mainstay of the Autobots. As a tank he can't drive around among the humans with impunity like the car Autobots do, he has to be kept in reserve so much of the time he is waiting in the Ark for the call to action. He tends to annoy the Autobot commanders by constantly monitoring the human news for anything which smacks of Decepticon activity and calling for immediate deployment against it. Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus have repeatedly and patiently explained to him that much of the fighting around the Earth is just the humans warring with each other, not every air strike is the Decepticons, the humans have jet fighters too.

Last edited by Gamebook on Sat Oct 06, 2018 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Belch is an Autobot haulage worker, forever on the road transporting cargoes to and from their bases and their human allies and partners. He is part of a very common pattern of such Autobots, but in his case there is a defect in his design. Rather than running on a conventional Transformer power plant he has an adapted human diesel engine. Autobot technicians were experimenting with human technologies to see if they could build Transformers more quickly and cheaply in human auto-plants using them. To get a diesel power plant capable of supplying the level of energies needed to supply a Transformers and still fit in the engine bay they had to make some pretty extreme adaptations. When running it gives out a staggering amount of noise and fumes, deafening and choking any nearby humans. It also breaks modern human laws on emissions and volume and so is not road legal. The verdict on the design was that a fleet of Autobots with such a power plant would reverse all human progress on curbing pollution and cleaning up the smog.

Belch is not supposed to be working at all, he was laid up for some time awaiting rebuilding to a more conventional design. Unscrupulous Autobots though took him out of the storage bay and have him transporting 'unofficial' cargoes i.e. black market contraband. The naive Belch thinks he is genuinely contributing to the war effort and revels in his loud engine and great clouds of black smoke as the badge of a working Autobot. He will be crushed when he finds out how he has been exploited and misused.

The logic of military operations means that many of the types of combat equipment that humans have developed have their equivalent on Cybertron. For Transformers though instead of riding in and operating vehicles they prefer to become the vehicles, just as rather than clothes and tools they prefer to build the equipment into their bodies in many cases. Their mechanical nature is much more plastic than the organic life on Earth, they can readily build and rebuild themselves. Transformers have evolved over their long period of existence, but it is mostly Lamarckian rather than Darwinian evolution, driven by Transformer notions and striving rather than differential survival and reproduction. The closest equivalent they have to natural selection is the way certain designs and design philosophies become popular and are commonly built. The rationale behind the Decepticons war is that Cybertron became overpopulated with inferior designs of Transformer that were using up its resources for no useful purpose. They were conducting a necessary cleansing, replacing the worthless with superior designs. The Autobots counterargument to this ruthless philosophy is that the Decepticons are an aberration, nearly mindless weapons that have escaped their creators control and are running amok. This is why there can never be compromise between the two sides and the war can only end with one side's complete destruction.

Before the war most Transformers were quite small and inoffensive, built with an eye towards low cost and fuel economy. Part of the reason that Iacon held out against the Decepticons was that its Transformers population was on the average much larger and stronger thanks to the great wealth of the city. The mid-size car Autobots are or are based on the typical Iaconian citizen. While on Earth they have adopted human civilian vehicle alt-modes because they are the equivalent of what they had on Cybertron. The great mass of Autobots have never transformed into dedicated combat vehicles, they and the Autobot leaders prefer to retain their civilian modes. They are afraid of what would happen to them if they went the way of the Decepticons and became pure warriors, they could lose their souls as the 'cons have done. Most Autobots thus prefer to carry or operate weapons rather than being weapons, only part of the Autobot army are specialist combat Transformers.

Bluebottle and his kind constituted the majority of Transformers before the war, living in a huge number of small city-states scattered widely across Cybertron. Many were casually wiped out by the Decepticons during their initial rampage at the beginning of the war. In most cases though they perished not by Decepticon guns but because their cities were stripped of all energon and useful resources to fuel the Decepticon war effort and they all perished from lack of energy and terminal breakdowns. Billions of them collapsed and ceased to function on the highways of Cybertron as they sought out refuge and fuel somewhere on Cybertron. Others chose to die with more dignity in their homes, neatly arranging themselves and inscribing monuments and testimonies to their history and who had murdered them.

Bluebottle is small and frail for an Autobot warrior and cannot really withstand any amount of Decepticon firepower. Optimus Prime values the minibots more for their moral effect than their combat utility. He tries to only commit them when the battle is already won and they are putting the Decepticons to flight. The minibots are poor warriors but do much of the actual work of operating the Autobot economy, freeing up larger and stronger Autobots for front line service. To make them feel that they are striking back against those who committed genocide against them though they need at least a few warrriors from their ranks. Prime does his best to stop his regular warriors from patronizing the minibots while avoiding offending them himself by making it too obvious that his main concern is keeping them safe to conduct morally symbolic actions rather than entrusting them with serious and challenging military objectives that would probably just get them all killed.

Cyber-warfare is a major part of the Autobot-Decepticon war with both sides constantly seeking to hack the others electronics. Most of the time the two sides programmers just cancel out each others efforts, though neither side can afford to ever relax their vigilance. Sitting at a terminal all the time writing code may seem to be a safe and cushy option, and many front line Autobots dismiss the contribution of electronic warriors like Bluechip but actually he is at considerable risk of Decepticon attack. A very effective tactic of overcoming the other sides electronic defenses is just blowing up the computers and programmers responsible for maintaining those defenses. This creates gaps and vulnerabilities which allow Decepticon intruder programs to spread through the Autobot computer networks, doing far more damage than just a regular bombing raid. Bluechip and other technicians location thus has to be kept strictly secret and they are moved around frequently.

Bluesky is a dedicated close ground support aircraft of the Powerglide design. The Autobots favor these slow, heavily armored aircraft over the fast strike jets that are the Decepticon seekers. As Autobots these fliers do not despise ground troops as their inferiors and seek to win the war without them. Instead they are content to loiter for long periods over Autobots fighting on the ground, performing ground strikes against the Decepticons. They rarely conduct the deep operations into enemy territory that the Decepticons do due to their inherent inferiority in air-to-air combat.

Bluesky is a strong exponent of this combat philosophy. He flies so low over the Autobots he is supporting that they do not need to radio up to him for support missions, they can actually just shout up to him with their voice synthesizers. All Transformers can shout very loudly if they need to as they use speakers built into their bodies to vocalize. Being a combat model vehicle in his alt-mode he cannot easily move around among the humans and so spends most of his time in reserve waiting for deployment orders. The Powerglide and Warpath design Autobots tend to be great friends and are usually found together discussing the latest battles and new ideas for tactics. They tend to regard themselves as the elite of the Autobot army, Prime's heavy hitters.

Bolthead is angry all the time because he doesn't have the usual emotional dampeners that Transformers are fitted with. These are necessary to keep their emotions in check, without them they tend to tend to overreact wildly, swinging between highs and lows of elation and rage. In Bolthead's case battle damage to his computer brain that has never been fully repaired is the cause. Really he should be invalided out from the front line as his perpetual nervous tension and reckless ways are going to get him killed eventually. The Autobots though cannot spare him as every warrior is vital as the war on Earth hangs in the balance. Also Bolthead has threatened to shoot anyone who tries to mess with his brain, he is convinced that the Autobot medics want to perform the Transformer equivalent of a prefrontal lobotomy on him. His ability to think rationally is severely impaired by the perpetual fog of rage he lives in.

Last edited by Gamebook on Sat Mar 30, 2019 6:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Most Transformers are very strong but Brawn takes it to an extreme. His internal spaces are mostly physical motivators making him uncannily strong even for his size. He can pick up solid, dense objects that are much larger than himself, and then throw them. His design is intended as a general heavy laborer, he is the Transformer equivalent of a navvy, or a hydraulic jack in machine terms. On Cybertron before the war he worked in construction and demolition, lugging around huge pieces of metal all day. His main role in the war effort was not fighting but rather building the Autobots huge defense networks. Personally fearless he would build bunkers right on the front line, even while under fire. Even when he does confront Decepticons he rarely uses firearms, regarding them as fiddly and underpowered compared to his fists.

Breaker is of the Cliffjumper design, a very agile and athletic model. On Cybertron the design was used for professional sports players, performing in games and challenges for the entertainment of the Transformer laboring masses. Being large, high performance Transformers many of them escaped the Decepticons initial attacks and went on to become excellent soldiers. They are notorious show-offs, having been built with a propensity for theatrics as part of their entertainment function. Breaker is not an aquatic design and has no natural ability to swim, he sinks like the large lump of metal he is if he falls in the water (most Transformers can thrash the water hard enough to propel themselves and reach the surface, but it is very hard work and burns a lot of fuel). Since being assigned to patrol Australia to watch out for Decepticon bases and mining operations hidden in the vastness of the outback though he has picked up the practice of surfing from watching the humans. He prefers to just ride the waves like they do, but if he needs to he can engage a water turbine built into the underside of his large metal surfboard. He excuses this personal indulgence by claiming he uses it to patrol offshore coastal areas for signs of Decepticon activity.

The Autobots often use shuttles to transport themselves around the Earth and out into space. The role of 'gunner' is often used to describe the specialist operators of the weapons that protect these transports from Decepticon attack. Confusingly heavily personally armed Autobots are also often called gunners though they do not generally operate emplaced guns. Buffer is a cheap, general purpose Autobot suited for many tasks, though he is happiest when at the controls of some massive cannon.

He is dedicated to fighting the Autobot-Decepticon war and regards other car Autobots concern with their finish and how cool their alt-mode is as ridiculous vanity. He particularly disapproves of those Autobots who transform into sports cars, such as Sideswipe or Sunstreaker. The Autobots are supposed to be robots in disguise, waging a covert war against the Decepticon, protecting the humans by hiding among them. Cruising around showing off to impressionable humans attracts too much attention in his opinion.

The Insecticons are getting to be a major menace on Earth with their expertise at covert operations and sabotage. Bugsplatter is an Autobot vermin exterminator who back on Cybertron spent his time dealing with outbreaks of scraplet infestations in Autobot bases. Chemical weapons are rarely effective against mechanical beings and they can gnaw their way out of even metal traps so he just uses a flamethrower to scorch them out of their holes. The great thing about a flamethrower is that it also works well against Decepticons.

Bugsplatter will burn down the entire area to be sure he has gotten any hiding Insecticons. Fire is enough of a hazard on Cybertron, with flammable fuels, oils and rubbers around, on Earth it can set off catastrophes. He regards even the worst fire as less hazardous than permitting a 'con to escape though and keeps pouring on the flames. He doesn't like to stop until he has reduced his foes to melted, twisted, charred wrecks.

Bullrun is a variant of the common Sideswipe design. He was built as part of a major assembly of forces for an Autobot counteroffensive to break the siege of Iacon in the early years of the war. His unit was tasked with exploiting the breakthrough of the Decepticon lines effected by slower, heavier units of the Autobot army. In those early days of the war the Autobots commanders were still unfamiliar with mobile warfare and this resulted in a disaster the first time they pushed a unit out into the Decepticon rear to try and disrupt their operations. The highly mobile and expert Decepticons just pulled back and encircled the brave Autobot warriors, then steadily reduced them with overwhelming firepower as they were caught exposed in the open. Only a small part of the force succeeded in breaking back to Autobot lines.

Bullrun doesn't blame Optimus Prime for this now long ago defeat. They were all still learning how to fight in those days. He directs his anger and desire for revenge against the Decepticons, for starting this war in which so many have perished. Every Decepticon he takes out is personal revenge for the deaths of all those young, outstandingly brave but inexperienced Autobot warriors. Most of them had only just been built and that was their first battle and it turned out to also be their last.

Despite its unfortunate debut the Sideswipe design went on to become a mainstay of the Autobot forces. They can be found in all sorts of roles, wherever determined combat power is needed. Bulwark is a tough, professional soldier who keeps his Autobots on their toes, or wheel rims. He thinks it is necessary for his job but actually he doesn't need to run them that hard. Doing guard duty is often given to those Autobots who are tired or recovering from battle damage and need less onerous duties for a while. Some Autobot medics and technicians have complained about him wearing out Autobots who are not even on the front line. Constantly transforming the base isn't good either, the massive constructions are not meant to be strained that much and repairing and maintaining them is a lot of work. Ironically Bulwark may be taken off his current position and sent back to the front lines where his restless energy can be put to better use. He was actually given his current position for his excellence in laying out and manning front line fortifications during active operations. In a classic example of the 'Peter Principle' he was promoted to his current role, which is actually rather different and to which he is not well suited.

Bumblebee is one of the surviving refugees from Protihex. More realistic than some of his fellows he never wanted to get involved in the war and even now is reluctant to actually stand up and fight Decepticons. Its not that he lacks courage, just that he is aware of how hopelessly outmatched he is by genuine warrior Transformers in every way. Pluck just cannot substitute for mobility and firepower. Instead he contributes to the Autobot war effort by spying on the Decepticons. He does this not by sneaking past defenses into Decepticon bases, he's only a minibot and has none of the expensive stealth equipment needed for that, but by contacting the slave workers who run the Decepticon war effort. He is expert at getting them to spy on and report what the Decepticons are having them work on now. Taken together their many reports build up a picture of the scale and intentions of Decepticon strategic plans. He drives long distances into the areas of Cybertron held by the Decepticons, relying on his unthreatening anonymity as just another worker drone.

On Earth Bumblebee carries on this program of surveillance, only this time among the humans. He passes himself off as a rusty old banger, one of millions owned by the large population of poor humans, and sneaks into Decepticon held areas of the Earth. There he contacts and collects information from the humans enslaved by the Decepticons to work for them. Despite years of doing this dangerous job he has never been caught by the Decepticons, in large part because they are too lazy and negligent to properly monitor their slaves. There is a dark side to Bumblebee though, part of the reason he has never been betrayed is that he also sets up networks of resistance assassins who kill any suspected informers. It is made well known on Cybertron and Earth that anyone who collaborates with the Decepticons will be murdered by secret agents among their own people.

Last edited by Gamebook on Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:31 am, edited 1 time in total.